New twist on old story!!!
The ant and the grasshopper -- updated version

OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
*****************************

MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing "We shall overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Tom Daschle & Walter Mondale exclaim in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share ."

Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act,"
retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Vote Republican!



|UPDATED|4/23/2004 12:20:06 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Since 1984 I've seen this "fable" pop up every four years, with some different names. While I don't feel that C3VR is the proper forum for politics, the door has been thrown wide open. Personally, I would not be offended if the moderators removed these posts (including this one) and remind the members that we are a car club.

Here's a true story from the ant world.

From 1993 to 1999, the nine manufacturing plants in our (small) county employed nearly three thousand very industrious ants, and 168 of them worked in our plant. In 2000, the eight remaining plants still employed nearly three thousand ants, and 165 worked in our plant. In December of 2001, two plants moved to China and one moved to Mexico - and several hundred ants came to us looking for work. We only had enough work for the 124 ants we had left. By the end of 2002, two more plant owners followed the lead of their predecessors by also taking advantage of the numerous "free market" loopholes in the newest tax codes - allowing them to increase their profitability by exporting their manufacturing jobs China and Mexico. Hundreds of hungry, unemployed, industrious ants came to us looking for work. Unfortunately, the weak dollar had made our products less competitive in our established overseas markets, and we barely had enough work for our 83 ants. In 2003, the largest of the three remaining plants closed its doors due to the same foreign product-dumping practices that are killing our particular industry - and hundreds more industrious ants came to us in search of gainful employment. In early 2003, we had to lay off 23 more highly skilled ants - and then more again in the Fall.

Today, only two plants remain in our county. We now employ 37 ants, and some of them will be on short hours within the next two weeks. Truthfully, I haven't even seen a grasshopper here - and neither has anybody that I work with.

I'm glad that things in someone else's neighborhood have worked out so that the fable holds real value where they live. But where I live and work, voting Republican is like the ants voting for the exterminator.

John

ya, so we can have more of our sons and daughters killed looking for WMD's.

I tend to agree, this is not the place for politics, it can really cause a division and hard feelings on both sides. To that end, i wont even post my feelings on this.

This could get ugly. It could be correct. I do have strong feelings. I will only share some of them here.

I feel I will work on my Corvette this weekend. I feel very strongly about this. I hope it doesn't rain. I feel I will talk about Corvettes here, and have fun with it. That's why I'm here.

Dave and Ken,
you're absolutely right. politics have no place here and I knew better. but, sometimes your goat gets gotten (like that alliteration?). won't happen again.
Hank

lumberjack said: . . . While I don't feel that C3VR is the proper forum for politics, the door has been thrown wide open. Personally, I would not be offended if the moderators removed these posts (including this one) and remind the members that we are a car club . . .

Actually, not only would I not be offended, it is my sincere hope that Adam and the moderators WILL remove these post. Both sides have been heard once - and that is MORE THAN ENOUGH politics for our CAR CLUB.

I'm a member here to talk and learn about the ONE thing we know we have in common. I don't want to walk in here to find ANYBODY'S personal politics on display - whether I agree with them or not. (Maybe this is what I should have written this morning.)

Still friends.

John

I'm a member here to talk and learn about the ONE thing we know we have in common. I don't want to walk in here to find ANYBODY'S personal politics on display - whether I agree with them or not. Still friends. John

I agree 100%. Let's keep rreligion off the table as well. There are too many other places on the web to debate both topics.

Didnt think that so many poeples feelings would be so hurt by this .Just excercising my freedom of speech,& when thats done in the NON-Corvette section,you're bound to get some disagreement
Maybe if it had said,vote something else PS:By The Way,I AM NOT THE AUTHOR! I just passed it on.

|UPDATED|4/22/2004 10:07:28 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

I don't think you have hurt anyones feelings. Least of all not mine. No offense taken. No apology necessary. We all have our moments.

That type of thing is something I can enjoy and get into. Some are things I can hate and get into. I can spend a lot of time talking relegion as well.(Sometimes driving a Vette can feel like a relegious experience).....But everything in it's time and place.
Personally I think we all just want to get along and enjoy our vettes, and all of the other people in our extended family who also enjoy them.

I love my Vette, I love this site, I love sharing with you folks.
No harm, no foul. Enjoy!